Almost 300km south of Notch Point, we are officially now in the central QLD region and the heart of the Capricorn Coast, aptly named as the Tropic of Capricorn passes through this part of the coastline. This means we are getting to the bottom end of tropical ‘northern’ Australia and offshore we are close to the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. It’s crazy to think that we have travelled almost 2000km along the QLD coastline since our northern most camp at Elim Beach back in September and we are still within the coastal waters of the Great Barrier Reef! In actual fact, the Great Barrier Reef stretches over 2,300km and is made up of 2,900 individual reef systems and 900 islands – amazing!

After a week or so out of the water and being locked in the caravan away from mozzies and sandflies, little miss Kiera is back to her usual cheerful self and her skin has healed really well. What better way to celebrate than a swim at the ‘lagoon at Yeppoon’?!! In reality, it’s not a ‘lagoon’ but it is a really awesome swimming pool. What’s more amazing is that it is run by the local Council and it’s free! I feel like this kind of place would be chaos if we had it in Sydney and we would probably never go but in Yeppoon it just works.

We planned on spending a couple of nights in Yeppoon. We ended up staying for six! I think that is almost a record for the number of nights we spent in a single place (disclaimer… we did have to move site on the camp site mid way through as they didn’t have the same site available for six nights but we are pretty efficient at packing up and moving now so it didn’t count as we only moved 15 metres!).

We took a drive up through the surrounding National Park to Upper Stony Creek. It was recommended by a local as a fun swimming spot. We turned up on a Saturday and it is clearly a spot where the locals come to meet up with family and friends. Fun place for picnic lunch and swim in the river (croc free).

I think the highlight of our time at Yeppoon would probably be a day trip out to Great Keppel Island. A place we had never heard of. A total of 18 islands make up the Keppel Islands, the largest of which is (unsurprisingly) Great Keppel Island and it’s only 15km or a 40 minute ferry ride off the coast of Yeppoon. You can actually stay on the island but we opted for the day trip version, leaving Yeppoon at 9.30am and returning at 4pm.

We took a walk over to Monkey Beach. I don’t think it was actually that far but it was hot and seemed to involve a lot of uphill so felt like a long way and we were all pleased to get in the water when we got there.

Great Keppel was a fun day out with paddle boards, fun time jumping off rocks and the worlds largest burger for lunch! I think we all felt like snoozing on the ferry back – it’s amazing what a full day out in the sun does for you.

A month ago, I am pretty sure I had never heard of the town of Yeppoon. It certainly wasn’t on our list of ‘must visit’ places when we started the trip, and yet I am sure that it will go down as one of our favourite stops and one of those towns you just remember for all the right reasons.